Status: Endangered

The Interior Least Tern (Sternula antillarum) is the smallest of the terns found in North America. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark recorded their first observation of an Interior Least Tern on August 5, 1804 along the Missouri River, near present day Omaha, Nebraska while on their 1803—1805 “Voyage of Discovery” across North America (2013 Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership Annual Report). Historically, terns nested on sparsely-vegetated sandbars along major rivers in the Central United States. Much of their natural habitat has been lost because of broad-scale changes to our natural river systems that include invasive plants, dams and reservoirs, river channelization, bank stabilization, hydropower generation, and water diversion.